Windows 8: Completely Hide a Hard Drive

Do you have a lot of files that you need to keep hidden? Transfer your mass of data to a separate drive, and then completely hide that drive from prying eyes.

Various methods work for hiding content within a computer system. Classically, users have just created hidden folders and placed the files to be hidden there. However, navigating and unhiding complex folder structure can be difficult.

Alternatively, through this article users can just keep an entire drive hidden. This is a logical method for hiding large amounts of private or secret data. Basically, we will tell Windows 8 to disconnect the drive from the OS. The drive can physically still be connected to the machine, but nobody accessing the computer will be able to navigate to it.

Obviously, only do this will hard drives that do not contain part of the OS. Hiding a drive that contains essential Windows files will cause your installation to fail.

1.Right click on the Computer shortcut and click Manage.

2.Select Storage under Computer Management.

3.Now double-click on Disk Management.

4.Select the drive that you want to hide. Right-click it and select Change Drive Letter and Paths…

5.Click on the drive letter, then click remove. Confirm removal, then click OK.

Your drive is now hidden. When browsing from the Computer shortcut, it will not be seen. When you need to access the data, repeat the procedure and add it back.

This, like all Windows hide techniques, is not completely secure. Parts of the OS that can detect the hard drive at the hardware level will show the drive to be present. However, most users looking for your data will not dive this deeply into your system looking for hidden devices.